Abstract

Silicon is one of the most abundant materials which is used in many areas of modern research and technology. A variety of those applications require surface nanopatterning with minimum structure defects. However, the high-quality nanostructuring of large areas of siliconsurface at industrially acceptable speed is still a challenge. Here, we report a rapid formation of highly regular laser-induced periodic surface structures (HR-LIPSS) in the regime of strong ablation by infrared femtosecond laser pulses at sub-MHz repetition rate. Parameters of the laser-surface interactions and obtained experimental results suggest an important role of electrostatically assisted bond softening in initiating the HR-LIPSS formation.

N.M.B. and T.M. acknowledge the support from the state budget of the Czech Republic (project HiLASE: Superlasers for the real world: LO1602). V.G. acknowledges support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (Award No. CBET # 1336111). I.G. and L.O. would like to thank Alberto Rota and Enrico Gualtieri (Centro Intermech-MO.RE. - University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) for the FIB characterization.

[Manufacture or treatment of devices consisting of a plurality of solid state components or integrated circuits formed in or on a common substrate or of specific parts thereof; Manufacture of integrated circuit devices or of specific parts thereof, Manufacture or treatment of devices consisting of
a plurality of solid state components or integrated circuits formed in or on a common
substrate or of specific parts thereof; Manufacture of integrated circuit devices or of
specific parts thereof]